valiD
as well as for human purpose, a more prosaic 'validation' is commonly asked for the vehicle parking also (discounted or comp'd as part of a service). kind of like a receipt added value, it's nice to receive.

When Tat is subtle, he is very subtle indeed! I loved the way this comic slowly enveloped me -- like hot fudge over cold ice cream!

Validation is sometimes used to be about Parking -- so getting a validation at the downtown cinema could be about Seymour having free parking for the movie. One level at the top.

Also tho' validation is used in this religious context -- "Jesus died for our sins so we are validated, from our sinful existence, by grace to go to heaven." It's a bit ironic that the goody girl as a movie ticket seller could validate Seymour for heaven especially when Seymour doesn't get the religious mystery of validation (panel 2) -- but then again who really does? Seymour has ticket punched to go to heaven for going to a movie! (another ironic spin).

Yet another spin could be that we all wonder if we're valid -- does our existence have any meaning? And so the last panel is Seymour "in love" since he is in fact a valid person.

Of course -- sometimes a whale is just a whale ... Moby Dick. I liked it on all those levels, even if those levels may not have been intended.

I love not living in a big city anymore. Don't get me wrong, of course a city offers more to do.. but paying an arm and a leg for parking, is a bitch no matter how you look at it.
I would've been gleeful, just like Seymour, to be validated.

(To foreigners: its usually a stamp retailers add to your reciept to prove that you've shopped with them in the past hour or what not. Then when you leave the parking deck, you show that to the attendant and either get a discount or get free parking as a thank you for being a paying patron.)

Nah I'm pretty sure it was Phil Hartman, it would have been very strange to see Belushi try doing Marvin Smiley._________________The older I get, the more certain I become of one thing. True and abiding cynicism is simply a form of cowardice.